With or Without You
by head's all empty
Summary: Dallas Winston is tough as nails. So is Rae-Ellen Hayes. When they meet, the expect just another casual relationship. But when they find they have something neither of then can understand, they also find that they are only to be torn apart.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsider's by S.E. Hinton. Also, note the perspective change in the middle of the story. You should be able to figure it out though. **

"Ay! Dallas!" Quincy Harris waved his cue in the air and grinned foolishly as I walked into Benny's. Austin Rivers and James Cook trailed a couple of feet behind me and a few people looked up from their Cokes or beers or pool games. I waved back at Quincy. It was clear the he was already completely sloshed. Quincy was the only guy I knew that got drunk at 2:30 in the afternoon.

The were a few other kids inside. Benny's was a pretty big hangout for kids. Benny wasn't real keen on that, but we weren't so bad. If you really wanted to do some damage, you'd go somewhere else like Sam's or The Ace.

We pulled into the counter. "Hey Benny, get me a Coke, huh?" I told Benny. He scowled at me, like he does at just about all the kids who come in. Austin and James laughed.

I glanced around the room while Austin and James goofed around next to me. I saw Rae-Ellen Hayes sitting on the top part of a both surveying a pool game while a whole bunch of guys were crowded around her. I didn't know Rae-Ellen all that well, except seeing her at some parties and a few times at Benny's. I knew she hung around Benny's a lot during the day and watched pool and drank Coke while all the guys drooled over her.

Rae-Ellen, people called her Rell for short, was a real character. She was the epitome of a greaser girl but somehow different than most. She wore dark jeans and leather jackets but she wasn't loud and flirtacious and whiney like most greaser girls. That wasn't to say she hadn't been around. She was about fifteen or sixteen and had had boyfriends since she was ten. That was because guys just went crazy over her. I mean, she was real pretty. Not just cute, beautiful. She had real blonde hair and big dark,dark, hard brown eyes. She was tough and tuff. She rarely ever smiled. She was the kind of girl you don't get smart with or make any dirty comments. You could tell she didn't take shit from anyone ever. She looked sometimes like she could beat the shit out of you.

Benny placed a Coke in front of me and I picked it up. "Man," I sighed, "This place is getting boring. Someone's gotta start a rumble or somethin'."

James nodded. "I hear you, man. Sometimes I wish some Soc would just come by looking for trouble so we could have _something _to do."

Austin hopped off his bar stool. "C'mon. Let's go talk to Collins." We walked over to where Marc Collins sat, right by Rell Hayes. Austin leaned up against the booth and I slid in next to Marc.

"You guy's comin' over to Buck's place tomorrow night?" Austin asked. Buck Merril was always having parties at his house.

"Hell yeah." Marc grinned. "Man am I ready to get wasted."

A few other guys joked around excitedly, punching Austin's arm.

"How bout you, Rae-Ellen?" Austin asked, looking up at Rell.

She took a long drag of her cigarette and looked off into the distance. "Maybe." she finally answered nonchalantly.

"C'mon, Rell. They'll be lots of booze..." James taunted. Rell swiveled her head around to look at him.

"You know Rae-Ellen don't drink." defended one of the boys sitting with her. I hadn't known that about her.

"Hey, Dallas, are you still riding for Buck?" Collins asked curiously.

I searched my shirt pocket for a cigarette. "Nah." I shrugged, thinking to myself I should really start again, though. "Just for cash here and there."

"Yeah," Austin started. "We been a helluva lot lonely without good ole' Dal at the barn." Austin rode a lot in the rodeos too. That's how I knew him.

James laughed and I shrugged again. I snuck another look at Rell. Collins had draped his arm around her and she was sipping on a Coke, laughing coldly about something with him. Probably poking fun at someone in the joint.

*******

I hopped down the steps of the school. Marc Collins leaned up against a parked school bus clad in cuffed jeans and a tight fitted white tee shirt. When he saw me, he strode over to me. I squinted at him as he lifted his hands and grinned. I walked swiftly passed him, forcing a smile and he wrapped his hands around me from the back.

"Hey, Rell." He said. "How ya doin', babe?"

"Marc." I stated simply, lighting up a cigarette. "You're looking good today."

He was. He was pretty handsome. Long, golden, greasy hair combed back. Me and Marc weren't going steady or nothing. We just made out a little on the way home from Benny's the day before. I wasn't crazy about him either, but I got a little bored and, I'll admit, a little lonely. See, I didn't have that many friends. Girl friends, that is. I had some, but mostly I stayed around the guys. Most of the girls at school thought I was a whore or a bitch.

Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush on this one. I'm not a very modest person anyways. Most girls hated me because their boyfriends were always flirting with me or sometimes even cheating on them with me. It had always been that way for me. Guys had always swarmed around me, constantly asking me out or trying to make some sort of move on me.

"I'd have to say the same for you." Marc said roguishly. He turned to face me and gave me a kiss. I kissed him back but pulled away quickly.

"Hey Marc, I gotta get home." I remarked and turned to walk away.

"Wait, Rell!" he called from behind me. I turned around. "So you coming to Buck's tonight. Cause you know, I'd be more than happy to take you."

I contemplated this for a second. I wanted to go. Parties at Buck's were pretty decent. But I didn't want to go "with" Marc so much.

"Yeah, I might drop by." I phrased it delicately to let it be known that I would go, but by myself.

Marc looked completely unfazed, though. He wasn't exactly the brightest kid on the block. Since he was kind of slow, I just left it at that. With most boys I would just give them the flat out truth that I had no interest in going with them.

"Alright, babe. Hope I catch you there." He smiled.

I saluted him and swaggered down the street.

**Kindly review please! Oh, and Benny's is borrowed from Rumble Fish -hehe. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A bit short, sorry. No perspective changes. Please review! Oh, and Dallas's appearance based on the movie. Haha, gotta love vintage Matt Dillon. Sorry about the horrible cliche of the father. But, mind you, I did switch it up a little. **

* * *

I walked up the swayed, worn wooden steps to the front porch and swung open the screen door.

"I'm home!" I called out as I stepped inside my house. My mother appeared around the corner holding a laundry bin and looking very tired.

"Rae-Ellen," she said, exasperated. "Glad you finally decided to grace us with your presence."

I sat down at the breakfast table and rapped my fingers on the scratched wood. "Jane around?" Jane was my older sister. She was a senior in high school and the exact opposite of me. She was sweet, pure, delicate, and a total over achiever. We were almost three years apart. She was eighteen and I was fifteen, although I had just turned it. There was never any question that my mother favored her. But I didn't care.

"Yes, she's upstairs studying." My mother called from the kitchen. She appeared back in the doorway, giving me a wide-eyed look.

"Rae-Ellen Hayes," she scolded. "Tell me you are not smoking in this house."

I looked down at the burning cigarette in my hand. Then, I dropped it on the floor and crushed it under my heel. "No."

She sighed with exaggeration. "I'm telling you Rell, I just cannot understand you for the life of me."

There was no mystery as to why she always looked so tired. She worked as a nurse most of the time to support me, my sister, and my father who didn't work.

"You and your father. I have to run around, fixing up after the two of you all the time. I never have to bail your sister out of any trouble."

"That's because my sister is a lovely, virtuous, chaste, all around royal pain in the ass." I retorted incisively.

My mother gave me a look.

"Where is the saint anyway?" I called.. "Oh, Saint Jane, come down here will you?"

I heard an angry mutter from upstairs and shrugged and walked up the dark steps. I leaned in the door way of Jane's room, where she lay on her stomach reading. I kicked her side.

"Ow!" she snapped. "Cut it out, will ya?"

I smiled at her. Even when she was hacked off, she was still pretty. She dressed differently than most people on this side of town, mostly because she didn't spend a whole lot of her time on this side of town. That was because she had always been friends with and dated kids from the other side. Wealthier kids. She just never fit in over here, with her yellow poodle skirts and matching cardigans and flippy honey blonde hair.

The frown wrinkles on her forehead smoothed out a little and she looked up at me and said "Well, golly, I feel like I haven't seen _you _in years. How odd, Rae-Ellen showed up once at home, huh?"

I growled. "Oh, don't give me that. I'm home plenty. I just usually have better things to do."

"Yeah, until about two o'clock every morning." She remarked sarcastically.

I walked out of the room, flipping her an obscene gesture on the way out.

I went back down to the kitchen to get myself a Coke and was surprised when I found my father stumbling in the front door.

"How are you doing, Rell?" He dropped into a chair an rubbed his temples. I looked him over. He was sweaty. My mother came in.

"Well, Victoria. Hi, honey."

My mother just pursed her lips at him. "John."

I didn't mind my father so much. Sure, he was a useless drunk, but in this neighborhood, who's father wasn't?

"Hey, Dad." I couldn't help but snicker. He was sort of pathetic sometimes.

But, like I said, I liked him enough. He was real smart, for a drunk. He went to a university and graduated and all. He was always making references about early literature or some shit. He was never a violent drunk either. He spent most of his time in town at some dive bar for old guys like himself.

He didn't mind, like my mother did, that I was always getting in trouble. He thought if that's the way I chose to live, then he was in no position to stop me. Plus, he gave me money whenever I asked.

"I'm going out." I said, slipping on a leather jacket.

"Where to, young lady?" my mother asked impatiently, her hand placed firmly on her hips.

"Aw, c'mon. Just out." I groaned.

"Back by midnight." She told me, even though we both knew that was highly unlikely.

* * *

**More Rumble Fish similarities. Cough, cough, drunken yet well educated father. lol, thank you S.E. Hinton.**

**PLEASE REVIEW.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Short again. Sorry, to be updated ASAP though. Review, please.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton or any of her characters.**

Smoke filled the room hazily as it crowded with people. I slid onto a barstool and asked for a beer. As I lit a smoke and looked around for Austin, some chick pulled in next to me, leaning up against the counter eagerly.

"One Heineken, please?" she said in a western kind of accent. I could tell she wasn't from town; only people who hung around Buck's talked like that. She snuck me a side glance and smiled. "Hey." She said, turning to face me and grinning wildly.

I eyed her. She had on a shiny pair of cowboy boots and a Western blouse.

I gave her a nod. I wasn't in the mood too much. Plus, I didn't care a whole lot for the country type anymore. I'd grown sick of them after hanging around the barn all the time, and most of them were just dumb chicks.

"I'm Lisa." She said, still grinning. "What's your name, honey?"

Buck finally slid a beer across the counter for me. "It's Dallas." I said impatiently, wishing someone I cared to talk to would show up.

"You from around here, Dallas?"

I felt a hard slap on my back. "Hey Dal!" It was Tim Shepard. Relieved, I whipped my head around and gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. "Well, if it ain't old Timothy, eh?"

He glanced at that girl Lisa. "You gonna introduce me to your friend?" he smirked.

I sighed and cussed to myself silently. But before I had to answer, she took it upon herself to do it. "I'm Lisa." She said again, offering a hand to Tim. Tim happily took it and started asking her about where she was from.

I took this time to pick up my beer and step outside. I wasn't interested in hooking up with any hick broad tonight.

The air outside was cooler than inside and a little fresher. Sitting on the paint chipped railing of the porch, I took a drag of my cigarette. It was quiet except for the muffled sound of country music and chattering and the hum of the neon beer signs. A few people I knew would come up to the porch and wave and I'd wave back idly.

I heard the creaking of the screen door and a loud slam following it. There were light steps on the porch and someone sat down on the other side of the steps. I looked forward. I figured whoever it was, wanted some peace and quiet just as I had.

"Hey," a female's soft and slightly hoarse voice uttered. "You got a match?" It was once again, Rae-Ellen Hayes, sitting vacantly on the steps, a cigarette clenched between her teeth.

I nodded and reached into my pocket for my matchbook.

She caught it swiftly and struck one on the side. It popped and hissed quietly and she and after lighting it, she shook it out and tossed it away.

"So," she said, flinging the matchbook back to me, "you're Dallas, right?"

I was a bit surprised she knew my name. And that was saying something, because I was pretty popular around town. I knew hers, but that was because everyone did. We'd never so much as exchanged hellos until now.

"Yeah. Yeah, Dallas Winston. Rae-Ellen, huh?"

She half-smiled and nodded. "You hang around that Soda kid, right? The one at the DX station?" All the chicks around here knew Sodapop Curtis. He was handsome and friendly and he just about had to swat them off like flies at the station.

"Sure. He's a good buddy. You're going with Collins?"

She laughed stiffly. "I wouldn't say that."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "No shit, huh?"

She pursed her lips and looked forward. "Well, we did for a while. But, that got old pretty fast."

I chuckled. "That Collins kid sure is a piece of work, though." I thought aloud.

She laughed coldly again. "I hear you're quite the trouble maker around here, aren't you?" She asked suddenly.

"I could say the same about you." I muttered, smirking.


End file.
